Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi All,

Hoping to get some guidance from some of the experienced Beer Brewers who have moved into all grain washes for distilling.

I’m intending to do some all grain BIAB washes and was hoping someone could share the best foolproof grains I should use on my first attempt ( I’m in metro melb and have used beer co for grain supplies but there is so much choice!)

I have tried the nutigrain , wheatbix and pumpernickel bread washes so not looking into these any further at this stage.

Have a conical fermenter, a grain mill, a 25l boiler and thanks to Wellsy’s bulk order a number of BIAB bags.

Any help or advice from the brains trust would be really appreciated.

Cheers

HG

I have done 20 AG / biab mashes now so i have some experience although do not call myself experienced but i have made enough mistakes to share what i do know.

1. Grain needs to be milled fine for better conversion. If you dont get good conversion it is a lot of work for little return.
2. Use malted grain (whole mash bill or partial mash bill). 100% unmalted grain has little flavour.
3. I have done corn, wheat, barley and oats only. Oats give a nice mouth feel. My local guy has triticale malt, a hybrid rye & wheat grain which i am keen to try in the next 70/20/10 i do.
4. I stuffed up attempting bluc's 70/20/10 mash and the flavour off the spout was terrible. Now been on usa heavy toast + usa charred oak for a month and has come a long way. I am excited by it.
5. There is a lot of heavy lifting, get a pulley system to help. Otherwise i am a tight@ss so I use a sieve which fits perfectly in a bucket, the biab sits in the sieve. I pour/scoop the mash in to the biab and it drains through in to the bucket. I then push down on the biab to get the last dregs of liquid out.

Will you be traditional mashing or angel yeasting ?

BigRig wrote:I have done 20 AG / biab mashes now so i have some experience although do not call myself experienced but i have made enough mistakes to share what i do know.

1. Grain needs to be milled fine for better conversion. If you dont get good conversion it is a lot of work for little return.
2. Use malted grain (whole mash bill or partial mash bill). 100% unmalted grain has little flavour.
3. I have done corn, wheat, barley and oats only. Oats give a nice mouth feel. My local guy has triticale malt, a hybrid rye & wheat grain which i am keen to try in the next 70/20/10 i do.
4. I stuffed up attempting bluc's 70/20/10 mash and the flavour off the spout was terrible. Now been on usa heavy toast + usa charred oak for a month and has come a long way. I am excited by it.
5. There is a lot of heavy lifting, get a pulley system to help. Otherwise i am a tight@ss so I use a sieve which fits perfectly in a bucket, the biab sits in the sieve. I pour/scoop the mash in to the biab and it drains through in to the bucket. I then push down on the biab to get the last dregs of liquid out.

Will you be traditional mashing or angel yeasting ?

Thanks for the response BigRig. I will take all of your notes into consideration.
I have got a block and tackle in the shed I can use to lift the bags so weight shouldn’t be an issue.
I’m into using mech aids as much as possible.

I hadn’t thought yeast, what would you suggest? Is Angel Yeast the best option and if I didn’t use Angel Yeast what yeast would be best to use?

i'm quite new to whiskey.
just put a corn/oats/rye/malt in to the fermenter.
i recommend you look into using enzymes for corn, makes things so easy.
get mine online from beerco, using the high temp Benzyme - AA - Alpha Amylase (termamyl)
get 22l of water to 50C, put in 4Kg of finely milled corn grits, rolled oats and 1ml of enzyme.(yes- 1 ml)
take it up to 90C and keep it there for 1 hour.
quickly cool to 65C with cooling coil, add malted rye and distillers malt.
keep at 65C for 1 hour..............job done.
pour everything (inc grains) into fermenter.
no gloop or porridge.
in case you wonder- grain bill
4 kg corn
900gm bag of rolled oats
1 kg distillers malt milled
0.5 kg malted rye milled

If your traditional mashing try the safspirit yeasts. Saf malt whisky or saf american whiskey corn mashs :handgestures-thumbupleft:

You state to heat to 90 Celsius, is it your understanding that the amylase will tolerate this for the stated 1 hour at 90C and or more?

Just want to be clear, it ambiguous and if it can then its an excellent thing.

Thanks for all the responses to date, appreciated

chipboy wrote:You state to heat to 90 Celsius, is it your understanding that the amylase will tolerate this for the stated 1 hour at 90C and or more?

Just want to be clear, it ambiguous and if it can then its an excellent thing.

As far as I know the high temp enzyme does not denature at 90c.

chipboy wrote:You state to heat to 90 Celsius, is it your understanding that the amylase will tolerate this for the stated 1 hour at 90C and or more?

Just want to be clear, it ambiguous and if it can then its an excellent thing.

different enzymes have their own methods, you have to follow the manufacturers instructions.
but yes, with the enzymes i use, the manufacturer recommends temps between 85C - 95C for 30-60 mins for their Termamyl.
i don't think there is a time limit, you could hold 90c for hours if you wanted(?).
but the job is done fairly quickly, and checked with iodine test of course.

Thank you, yes was thinking of lookin g up the spec sheet, now I wont need to, regards!

I will get cooking soon, all grain no 2 coming up without the wild yeast!